Working on Robinetta, day 2

 There comes a time in every project when there is a feeling that it will never be done on time. That was today.

Alex has made good progress on the hull, but it is all prep work. By the end of the day the bare wood on the lower hull has a coat of primer, but the patches needs another coat before the full tie coat goes no. The same is true for the patches on blue hull, so it still feels like there is a long way to go. The wooden plinth for the heads has one coat of primer, so needs another before it gets its final coat before being installed.

I had been working on the interior, washing, filling, and painting. The floor boards are now clean, and sitting outside so they do not get paint on them. Nowhere is ready to be put back together, although there is some progress on the galley.

Working on Robinetta, day 1

View from the "wash station"

Constant flowing water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weather makes a huge difference to the experience of working on a boat, and we could not have wished for better weather. Warm sun and a slight breeze meant that the lack of mains water at the yard was irrelevant. A culverted stream runs under the boat yard to discharge clean water onto a pebbled beach. Sitting on a convenient rock, surrounded by beautiful scenery, made washing a year's accumulated grime off the heads and the floor boards more of a pleasure than a chore.

 Alex is concentrating on the exterior of Robinetta, and with 5 days of guaranteed time undercover she should look lovely by the time we launch (hopefully Tuesday). My tasks on the interior might take longer. We have not been able to do a deep clean since we left Tollesbury back in 2021, and the inside of the boat is filthy. That means the painting has to be delayed, and some of it might be put off for yet another year.

Nearly there

Julian and I went up to Ullapool this weekend, mostly to dress the mast but also to see how the repairs to Robinetta were going. Everything is on track, and we now have a probable launch date in Easter week. 

The major unexpected job has been replacing practically all the floor bolts. Tim found a few that had obviously been in place since Robinetta was built, as they did not come through the planking, but even the ones replaced just after we bought Robinetta in 2007 showed significant weakening. They are now all new.

I mentioned the port side planking in the last post, and Tim had a good look and declared it not in need of replacement. He did repair and reinforce the rib between the galley and the cockpit bulkhead, which should stop the seeping into the food locker behind the sink. I will rebuild the galley on my next visit.

 We had asked Tim to do a number of different small jobs and they are mostly complete, with pictures below.

New splines on the cabin sides

The bits refastened securely

repair and reinforcement to the forward port rib

Interior of the hanging locker, with the reinforced rib and planking in white

Replacement plank in the stern starboard locker

New attachment point for the jib sheet lead, with the grab rails now oiled rather than varnished.

 

New mast partners and staysail sheet track

For the rest Robinetta still looks very much herself.  "Not up to Solent standards" as her 1949 survey states, but our son Alex will paint and antifoul her before launch, and we have never tried to prepare her for a Councourse d'Elegance.

New planks on the Starboard side

One of the advantages of replacing the planking is access to the ribs. I had been concerned about the final rib in the cabin for a while, and it turned out to need replacing.

 

The rot in the starboard stern quarter that Julian found back in 2023  and did a "quick fix" on has now been revealed in all its horror. However with Tim on the case it did not take long for the repairs

That is probably all that needs doing on the Starboard side. Now Tim just needs to check what is going on to port...

New cabin sides

 As always when a wooden boat gets work done more problems emerge. We were expecting this with Robinetta, and when Tim started work on the cabin sides he discovered some "mushroomy wood". This could be cut out, and just the section replaced, but we have done this before, and now have a plank that is in sections from the cockpit to the inside of the hanging locker with but joints. The new rot section needs replacing to half way along the cabin side. Replacing the whole plank will give us a much better job, and should mean that we do not need to replace another part of the plank in a couple of years.

The floor bolts that Tim identified as a possible cause of the garboard leaks have been pulled, and did indeed need replacing.

Julian did a rough repair on the hole though the port bulwark where the bowsprit goes though before we launched in 2024, but this has now been replaced and strengthened.

The teak bulwark facing the foredeck has been resplined. That's another of Robinetta's cabin leaks fixed.

We still intend to head north as soon as we can, but our departure date from Ullapool is getting later. Mid April, rather than the end of March is still early, but we shall see!

 

New topsides

 Had another set of pictures from Tim Loftus. The repairs are definitely progressing. The anchor hawser pipe has moved to be a bit more central, but I am promised it is clear of the bowsprit. We will be getting a new staysail track too, but it has not yet arrived.

Ongoing work

 Julian and I have not been up to Ullapool, but Tim Loftus has started work, and sent us a couple of pictures of the deck around the mast. The deck frame and mast partners are rotten underneath the soggy plywood deck and need replacing. A days work for a shipwright, but a huge headache if we were trying to do it ourselves!